Yingli is Tanking, but the Solar Industry Remains Vibrant

Solar stocks are getting a thrashing today after Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) came clean about a possible bankruptcy.

The stock tanked at the open and is still trading below $1.00 – down from yesterday’s closing price of $1.70.

Of course, the writing was on the wall with this one.

Yingli’s been struggling for a long time. And while I’m extremely bullish on solar, I’ve kept a safe distance from Yingli, as well as a lot of other China solar stocks.

That being said, even the solid, revenue-generating companies not operating out of China are in the red today, including SunPower (NASDAQ: SPWR), First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR), SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE) and SolarCity (NASDAQ: SCTY).

Interestingly, I thought those particular stocks would get hit a bit harder today, potentially opening up an opportunity to pick up some cheap shares. That didn’t happen, so those like me, who are long on these four stocks, are feeling pretty confident right now.

Still, I suspect we’ll see plenty of anti-solar pieces over the next few days. This is pretty much an obligatory response anytime we see disruption in the solar space. And that’s fine. At this point, none of that matters.

The growth trajectory for solar has not budged with this recent news out of the Yingli camp. The only thing that’s changed is the space has rid itself of one more laggard. And that’s a good thing!

Interestingly, while solar is down today, a number of our renewable energy yieldcos are up.

As of this writing, TransAlta Renewables (TSX: RNW) is up about 3 percent, Pattern Energy Group (NASDAQ: PEGI) is up just over 1 percent, and Hannon Armstrong (NASDAQ: HASI), which is technically a REIT, is up just over one percent, as well.